Last night, I was a “giver” for World Book Night. It was so much fun, from opening my Giver Boxes, with specially printed editions of Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn Dixie (thanks to Kate, who like all the authors, gave up royalties on these special editions, Candlewick and all the other publishers who donated books and the printers and binders who created the special editions)…

…to delighting kids with a free book (yes, the diner in the background on the left IS from Seinfeld).

…to the adults who wanted to get in on the act:

For a list of all the books in the program, click here. More stories and photos on the WBN Facebook page.

Missed out this year? Join the mailing list to be updated on next year’s program.

Thanks to all of you who are going out tonight to “Spread the Love of Reading, Person to Person” as you give out books to surprised (and delighted) strangers on World Book Night.

Share your stories by @ tagging World Book Night USA in your Facebook posts (organizer Carl Lennertz begs you not to email your photos; it will crash the mailbox). On Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr, use the hashtag #wbnamerica. We’re already seeing some great stories and photos on the WBN Facebook page.

USA Today ran an inspiring feature on the program today. An Associated Press story also appears in many newspapers across the country.

Book giveaways are also going on in the UK, Germany and Ireland (it may not be an actual worldwide event yet, but it’s more so than the World Series).

Have fun everyone, and be safe out there.

If you missed out this year, sign up here to be involved in the program next year.

The AuthorChat with Jean Zimmerman, author of The Orphanmaster is now archived here.

The Orphanmaster is a historical thriller, set in 17th C Manhattan (then New Amsterdam). It’s rich with historical detail that makes the period come alive, based on Jean’s research (she has written several nonfiction titles, including The Women of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune and a Dynasty, Harcourt, 2006).

The Orphanmaster Jean Zimmerman Retail Price: $27.95 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Viking Adult – (2012-06-19) ISBN / EAN: 0670023647 / 9780670023646

Charlotte Rogan captivated the audience when she spoke last month at PLA’s Debut Authors panel. The NYT interviews her today about her book, Lifeboat, saying it is,

…already riding a wave of heady praise and early reviews. It carries sparkling blurbs by Emma Donoghue, the author of Room, and Hilary Mantel, the author of Wolf Hall. Booksellers have predicted that it will become a hit among book club members, those prized word-of-mouth readers who have helped make best sellers out of novels like The Help and The Paris Wife.

With its theme of a WWI shipwreck and survivors facing moral crises, it echoes James Cameron’s The Titanic which opens today in IMAX theaters (in others on Friday), a connection pointed out by many, including the UK’s Guardian, which calls it “A compelling and disquieting first novel.”

Libraries are showing holds, averaging 5:1.

The Lifeboat: A Novel Charlotte Rogan Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Hachette/Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur – (2012-04-03) ISBN : 9780316185905

Hachette Audio

When we saw this book, we could hardly contain ourselves:

What better combo than librarians + knitting + cats?

Fortunately, our friends at Workman/Black Dog & Leventhal agreed and prevailed upon author Sally Muir to offer an opportunity for a librarian to win a knitted version of his or her very own cat.

To enter, email the publisher with a photo of your beautiful feline (be sure to note if the cat works in a library). The cut-off date is Thursday, 4/12/12 at midnight, ET.

Five runners-up will win a copy of the book.

When James Cameron’s The Titanic came out in 1997, publishers experienced a sudden windfall as the sales of over 30 backlist and new titles from a range of different publishers jumped onto best seller lists (resulting in the joke that it “floated all boats”).

Publishers are hoping that magic hits again, when the movie is rereleased in 3-D on April 4th, days before the 100th anniversary of the disaster. This time around, audiences will be offered another reenactment of the events in Julian Fellowes’ (Downton Abbey) two-part, four-hour series, Titanic, running April 14 and 15 on ABC. Fellowes has been on the offensive about the big-screen version, calling it inaccurate.

One of the books that experienced renewed sales the first time around was Walter Lord’s 1955 classic A Night to Remember (reissued in a 50th anniversary edition in 1996, with an intro. by Nathaniel Philbrick). It’s included in USA Today‘s extensive roundup of 25 available titles, as is the update of the movie tie-in (new forward by Cameron):

James Cameron’s Titanic James Cameron Retail Price: $24.99 Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: Harper Design – (2012-03-06) ISBN / EAN: 0062119389 / 9780062119384

Just one adult fiction title is featured in that list, The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott. The author was profiled in the NYT prior to the book’s release in February. The approaching anniversary is bringing renewed attention; the book was reviewed by Carolyn See in The Washington Post on Friday and was recently featured as an adult book for teens in SLJ. The public is picking up on the connection; several libraries are showing heavy holds, as high as 8:1.

The Dressmaker: A Novel Kate Alcott Retail Price: $25.95 Hardcover: 322 pages Publisher: RH/Doubleday – (2012-02-21) ISBN : 978-0385535588

In the following video, librarians present the case for  ebooks in libraries to major publishers at last week’s Association of American Publishers annual meeting (via Publishers Marketplace). The speakers are ALA President Molly Raphael; Jim Neal, Columbia University libraries; and Tony Marx, NYPL. In the audience  are the heads of most of the largest houses in publishing, including many that do not sell ebooks to libraries.

Video streaming by Ustream

If you are going to PLA, do NOT forget to add the following events to your schedule:

The Best in 2012 Debuts

Thursday, March 15; 10:45 am to noon; Rm 120 ABC, Philadelphia Convention Center

Four major debut authors; The Lifeboat, Charlotte Rogan; A Land More Kind than Home, Wiley Cash; Living Proof, Kira Peikoff; The Book of Jonas, Stephan Dau

Mystery Authors Revealed!

Friday, March 16, 10:45 am to noon; Rm 121 ABC, Philadelphia Convention Center

Featuring — Charles Todd, An Unmarked Grave; Lisa Unger, Heartbroken; Lars Kepler, The Nightmare; Sophie Hannah, The Other Woman’s House; Lisa Lutz, Trail of the Spellmans

We’re pleased to announce an opportunity for EarlyWord readers to become part of the launch of titles by major debut authors. Working with the Library Marketing team at Penguin (many of you already know Alan Walker and Dominique Jenkins), we’ve begun “First Flights — The Penguin Debut Author Program.”

I am particularly pleased that the first title in the program is The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman (Penguin/Viking, June 16). A work of historical fiction, it appeals to me on several levels. It’s set in an area I’m familiar with, the island of Manhattan, in a time period many of us don’t know much about, when it was part of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. It features a remarkably free-spirited female character who is even more remarkable for being based on a real person. The details of daily life at the time are fascinating (foot-long oysters!) and rooted in the author’s deep knowledge of 17th C history.

When you join the program, you will get a copy of the advance readers edition of The Orphanmaster and will be invited to join an online conversation with the author and me on April 11.

You will also become part of the “Penguin First Flights” club and will automatically receive notice of each new title in the program. The second title, The Bellwether Revivals, by Benjamin Wood, is a book of psychological suspense, coming June 28.

We all love being the first to know about a book that later becomes a household name. As part of this program, you will not only be among the first to read each book, you will be among the first to get to know the authors. Find out more and sign up here.

Like everyone else in the library world, we are fans of Unshelved, the world’s best (well, perhaps, only) cartoon strip about the crazy stuff that goes on in a typical library. What makes the strips so funny is that they are so accurate (like this one, about collection development resources).

So, when Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum mentioned that the strip is turning TEN today, we asked them to give EarlyWord a present by including us in panel. Without even objecting that it should be the other way around, they immediately complied:

They SWEAR Dewey is not commenting on our occasional (ah, hem) typos. We’re just happy he’s reader.

Thanks you guys, and here’s to several more decades.

The Children’s Book Committee
Bank Street College of Education

Cordially invites you to attend a breakfast

celebrating the presentation of

The 2012 Children’s Book Awards

The Josette Frank Award for fiction

The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for nonfiction

The Claudia Lewis Award for poetry

Thursday, February 23, 2012

9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Bank Street College of Education

The Evelyn Rome Tabas and Daniel Tabas Auditorium

610 West 112th Street

New York, NY 10025-1898

RSVP to bookcom@bankstreet.edu

It’s our newest addition — Young Adult GalleyChat. Join us today, from 4 to 5 pm Eastern (pre-chat warmup begins at 3:30). We’ll be looking ahead to books that look promising for the spring and summer. How-to is here.

We expect that many of you grabbed galleys at MidWinter. Below are a few that EarlyWord Kids correspondent, Lisa Von Drasek snapped with her iPad on the show floor:

Below, LBYR’s Zoe Luderitz shows off I Hunt Killers by Lyga Barra (Hachette/LBYR, April 3). There have been books about what it would be like if your child were a killer (Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin). This one looks at it from the other side, what would it be like if your father were a serial killer.

The debut everyone is talking about as a crossover title, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (Random House, June 26):

And, the “Gotta Get Galley of the Show,” Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue (Penguin/Dial, May 1):

Good news — the deadline to apply to give out books on World Book Night, Monday, April 23rd, has been extended.

Organizer Carl Lennertz says they’ve received hundreds of applications, with every state, city and town covered, but “the more the merrier” and he’s heard there are still people out there who want to be part of this program. The applications have been inspiring, he says,

 …the places the book givers are suggesting for their giveaway are as varied as America itself, from schools to nursing homes, coffeeshops to a soup kitchen. My favorite so far?  At a Little League game. And while I always knew in my heart, being a small town kid myself, that World Book Night might skew from big city and towards smaller cities and towns, one of my favorite suggestions so far is for someone to give away their books on the Staten Island Ferry.

Click here for more information on the program. The librarian’s signup page is here.

Help spread the word via Twitter. Below is suggested 140 character text:

Hey book lovers, be a volunteer book giver on World Book Night, April 23, 2012. Sign up at www.worldbooknight.org by Feb. 7

OR

Want to participate in a million book giveaway to promote reading? Sign up at www.worldbooknight.org by Feb. 7

On April 23rd, a group of 50,000 “passionate readers” will be giving away a million books.

The program is “World Book Night,” an expanded version of a program that began in Britian, where it lead to an increase in book sales. Anna Quindlen has been named the honorary chair of the U.S. program.

Librarians are invited to apply to be “book givers.” Online applications are available today, at us.worldbooknight.org.

In addition to the giveaways, books will be shipped to prison libraries and military bases.

The thirty books in the program were chosen by a panel of independent booksellers, Barnes & Noble buyers, and librarians.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Hachette/ LBYR)

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick)

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (HarperPerennial)

Blood Work by Michael Connelly (Hachette/Grand Central)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (RH/Knopf Books for Young Readers)

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Penguin/Riverhead); a Spanish-language edition, La breve y maravillosa vida de Óscar Wao (RH/Vintage Espanol), will also be made available.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Macmillan/Tor)

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger (Perseus/Da Capo)

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (S&S/Scribner)

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Norton)

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (Macmillan/Picador)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (RH/Ballantine)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (RH/Broadway)

Just Kids by Patti Smith (HarperCollins/Ecco)

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Beacon Press)

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Penguin/Riverhead)

Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Hachette/Back Bay)

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (S&S/Atria)

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (HMH/Mariner)

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (Grove Atlantic)

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial)

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (RH/Ballantine)

Q Is for Quarry by Sue Grafton (Penguin/Berkley)

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Workman/Algonquin)

The Stand by Stephen King (RH/Anchor)

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (HMH/Mariner)

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Penguin/Viking Children’s)

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (RH/Vintage)

With the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 pervading the news, librarians who work with children, are faced with special challenges in helping them understand the tragedy.

My school, the Bank Street College School for Children, has provided some guidelines for teachers that may be adapted for the rest of us who work with children, especially young children.

• We can focus on the good rather than the horrific; the bravery of individuals, the people who were heroic, the focus going forward on security and public safety.

• We can assure children that we are together in a safe place and a caring community, in which adults take good care of children

Language for our teachers and families has been adapted from the NYU Child Study Center. What we discuss with children may include:

• It was a terrible thing that happened on September 11, ten years ago

• Before you were born, a small group of people who did not like our country did a very bad thing. They hijacked four airplanes, which means that they forced the pilots to let them fly the planes. Instead of landing the planes, they made them crash into the Twin Towers in New York, a building called the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania. None of this usually happens when people travel on airplanes.

• Lots of people escaped the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and were helped by many rescuers. Sadly, some people did not escape and died that day.

• Adults and older children who were living when it happened might feel sad when they remember that day.

• It is okay to feel sad and to talk about and ask questions about what happened.

• Since then, many people in the United States and around the world have been working hard to keep everyone safe and to make airports, airplanes, and buildings safer.

• Many people have been working together to make the world better and to take care of other people. These are good things.

Tips for Parents and Caregivers

Please do not interpret these talking points to mean that everyone must sit down with a child and tell him/her about 9/11. Each family decides how and what to share with their child about this or any subject. Instead, here are some general thoughts in preparation for the anniversary:

• Be prepared to be present for your children more than usual. More than words, your presence is the most reassuring thing they can have.

• Tune in to coverage of the anniversary only when you know your child is asleep or not home. Even if it looks like they’re busy playing in another room, they hear everything! Keep newspapers and other sources of images out of view.

• Listen to your child. Answer the questions they ask, trying not to give them more information than they need.

• Turn their questions back to them. You can find out more about what they’re thinking. (It also buys you time to think!)

• Say you don’t know, if you don’t. You can think about it together.

• Say you’d like to talk about it with them, but you need time to think first. Set a time to talk—make sure you return to it. In between, seek out resources if you feel nervous or worried about what to say.

• Telling your own story as one way to address your child’s questions and curiosity: Where were you and what were you doing on Sept 11, 2001? How did you find out what happened? What did you think, feel, and do? How do you think and feel about the anniversary? Without graphic or inappropriate information, your personal story can be more meaningful than the overwhelming big ideas and horrific facts. Additionally, since it’s your story, it can be easier for you to answer questions your child might have.

• Avoid speaking over children’s heads to other adults assuming that the child won’t understand or isn’t listening to grownup conversations.

Other Resources

For Parents and Teachers

At the Bank Street Library website, you will find a useful link to Teaching through a Crisis: September 11 and Beyond. Published in 2003, this collection of essays was fueled by a desire to provide a vehicle through which educators could share their experiences of those events. Contributors wanted to know how teachers were addressing the questions raised by the tragedy: What kinds of conversations had been sparked among children, teachers and parents?

For Older children ages 8 and up

America Is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell (Actual Times) Don Brown Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 64 pages Publisher: Flash Point – (2011-08-16) ISBN / EAN: 1596436948 / 9781596436947

A dispassionate accounting of that day illustrated and age appropriate giving an easy to understand timeline of the events, includes an author’s note, sources and brief bibliography. America is Under Attack teachers’ guide written by Emily Linsay, a Bank Street School for Children teacher can be downloaded here.

14 Cows for America Carmen Agra Deedy Retail Price: $17.95 Hardcover: 36 pages Publisher: Peachtree Publishers – (2009-08-01)

Storyteller Deedy collaborated with Kenyan, Kimeli Naiyomah who tells of returning home to his Maasai village after 9/11 and related the events that he had witnessed to his community. The elders decided that to ease the sorrow of the citizens of New York, they would provide fourteen cows to comfort them in their loss. The herd exists to this day. Gonzalez’s vibrant paintings draw the audience into this picture book bringing the reader into a very different community than their own.